I just spent a fantastic weekend on the river, a wonderful bonus of the high water at this time of the year. Very few people visit this area during the rains - and with unpredictable weather, it's easy to understand why - but those that [...]

It's well known that mating and relationships in the animal kingdom are rarely romantic. Dominance, fighting, relentless pursuit and agressive mounting are all part of a female's day, but when you add the power, speed (and claws) of a lioness to the equation, it gets [...]

Sometimes it is....

This Pied Kingfisher spent a whole afternoon hunting fish from the same perch across the river from me. She caught several during the time I watched, but wasn't so lucky this time.

While I was in the North Luangwa National Park recently, we went out to have a look at a large nest that had been seen in a Brachystegia. The finder of the nest had reported seeing a pair of Bat Hawks nearby, and concluded that [...]

While I was away in the North Luangwa, many of the grasses that line the dambos in the park produced their seeds. I returned to find the elephants gorging themselves on the nutritious Rice Grass - or Lupunga as the locals call it. Baboons, whose [...]

....just aren't your day. The colours at this time of year can be fantastic, but there are also days where the cloud never burns off and everything looks flat and unappealing. I don't think this Brown Snake Eagle thought it was his day either as [...]

I've had my family and godparents staying for the last 6 days, and it's been a great week! When the rains came early in October, I feared that a January visit would be a complete wash-out; impassable roads, thick bush, endless bugs, sticky mud and [...]

Not often seen in this area, although a fairly common rains migrant from Russia, I found this Steppe Buzzard in the miombo woodland on the hills above the valley floor. Happy New Year.

For a long time, the taxonomic status of hyaenas has been under discussion. Should they be classified with dogs (Family: Canidae) or with the cats (Family: Felidae)? In the end, they are sufficiently different from both to gain their own family, Hyaenidae. Here are two [...]